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Wednesday, 24 May 2017

One of the crucial elements of any Reverse eAuction platform is its usability for suppliers. Often overlooked in favour of hosts (typically the paying client for eSourcing solutions), the ease-of-use of a reverse auction platform has a direct correlation to the level of competition.

We got in touch with a freight supplier who had been using Market Dojo as a participant for his perspective on our software. Joel Ziemek from Direct Connect Transport has been using Market Dojo for the last six months and participating in numerous reverse eAuctions held by Aggreko plc.

Here's what Joel had to say:

Tell me about yourself?

I am an account manager for Direct Connect Transport, we specialise in freight haulage across North America.

How did it start?

We were eager to work with one of Market Dojo’s clients; Aggreko plc. After getting in touch with Aggreko and completing their vetting process they initially invited us to participate in a single reverse auction. The eAuction was for their long-distance road freight needs across Minnesota hosted by Market Dojo software. Since taking part in the initial eAuction, we have been actively participating and tendering bids for over 20 reverse auctions a month. Having the ability to participate in these auctions has made a real impact on our business.

Have you ever participated in a Reverse Auction before?

To be honest with you, I had never heard of a reverse auction before Aggreko invited us to participate. Obviously, without knowing what I was getting myself into, I did some research prior to participating in my first auction. However, the majority of what I have learned has come from using the system and taking part in auctions.

What do you like about Market Dojo?

Well for one it is really easy and simple to use. The layout is very straightforward and as a freight supplier, I can see the full event details on the overview screen. Typically they include the origin, destination, cargo etc. We find this particularly useful because it comprises of all the details that we need to participate in an auction or quote for a specific job.

One of my favourite aspects as a freight supplier is that I get instant feedback when participating in an eAuction. It saves me a lot of time and hassle in comparison with chasing a quote. But with the ranked auctions events that are set up by Aggreko. We know at the auction close where we placed and whether we were successful in the event.

What have you found really surprising about Market Dojo and eAuctions?

How fun it is! I love my job and I find quoting on jobs really rewarding, but directly competing with other businesses adds another level of enjoyment and excitement. It’s a great feeling in winning an auction and being ranked 1st knowing that you have won the business.

What do you think that Market Dojo can do to improve?

I really like the system, but the layout of the event pages could be improved. Just so that I can better navigate between multiple live events.

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!

Monday, 22 May 2017

This month we have done a number of smaller releases. Here are the latest features and enhancements added to the software as requested by customers.

Participant activity tracking

Managing your tender through Market Dojo has many advantages over using email. The centralisation of information is one of those benefits. Although it is very easy to see which participants have responded, it can be difficult to know whether someone is still intending to respond, and which have not received the invitation.

A number of customers have requested more help in this area. Inspired by features available in outbound sales products, we have added a capability to see when emails have been received and opened. We think this is really useful, actionable information which will help save time when chasing up your participants.

Participants tab, with participants in different statuses. Notice that Company A and B have received and opened the invitation email, but Company C has not.

Sharing more information on questionnaire structures

You may want stakeholders to review and approve questionnaires before you send them out. Previously, only users with edit permission could view questionnaires that had no responses. Now, the information is available to everyone. This makes getting sign off from stakeholders much simpler.

A stakeholder with view permission can review the questionnaire before it is published.

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!

Our advanced text mining capabilities can already help to build a classification of spending, which in turn can be used to build a model that illustrates the process and needs of an organisation. Further developments could help to understand patterns of organisational spending, discover opportunities for savings and prioritise those opportunities based on the achievable savings value that they represent.

We could see the future of spend analysis in tools that have access to all of your spend data and categorise your spending in real-time while offering solutions based on data from transactions with other users. This could be beneficial for both consumers and businesses.

For example, a future spend analysis tool could identify and classify your spend with ‘Tesco’ as basic groceries. Suggest purchasing from an alternative local supplier like ‘Sainsbury's’ when the tool identifies a savings value that is greater than a value suggested. Or even further become a ‘spend data analysis solutions tool’ that makes purchases online on your behalf, combining data over numerous transactions to purchase products for your existing or current need at the market value.The same tool could be used to combine businesses direct spend data over numerous years and prioritise needs based on estimated future demand, current stock and recommended suppliers. If automated, the programme could then make purchases based real-time stock levels and sales made.

For more information on how you can benefit from Spend Data Analysis, go to www.myseaforth.com

Market Dojo helps procurement professionals negotiate better with our on-demand eSourcing tools. If you’d like to find out more, get in touch or register for free and play around with our software for yourself!